[Captain steve]

My 17 Springfield is coming up on the 25,000 mile service. When I called one dealer I was quoted $250 but my local dealer says $363...WTF?
They have the same labor rate and the service required should also match so why the huge disparity? Also I would like to go ahead and have my forks flushed as I passed on that at 15 and 20K. The SF has no fairing to disassemble so where do the dealers get off quoting something well north of $600? I can understand that the flush kit costs $100 but it does not sound like a 3+ hour job to me.

So what have you guys paid for a 25K service and/or a fork flush for your Indians {especially a Springfield}?

 

[Jonscout]

Don't know about your bike, but I wanted to buy a wheel from dealer and have a tire installed on it. No rotors; no work other than put a tire on a rim. New wheel was $420 and they wanted $560 for total cost (wheel and installation). Seriously - $140 to put a tire on. No thanks. Got rim from ebay (still $420) and local bike mechanic put tire on for $20.

 

[Chief Signguru]

My 1,000 mile service at an Indian dealer cost me around $500... kiss not included. Lol! After that, I either went to an independent garage or did the service myself. Never felt violated after that. I always kept my receipts for the oil purchases, for documentation, in case I had to prove what kind of oil I used.

 

[pablo94]

My 17 Springfield is coming up on the 25,000 mile service. When I called one dealer I was quoted $250 but my local dealer says $363...WTF?
They have the same labor rate and the service required should also match so why the huge disparity? Also I would like to go ahead and have my forks flushed as I passed on that at 15 and 20K. The SF has no fairing to disassemble so where do the dealers get off quoting something well north of $600? I can understand that the flush kit costs $100 but it does not sound like a 3+ hour job to me.

So what have you guys paid for a 25K service and/or a fork flush for your Indians {especially a Springfield}?

Steve,

The forks are cartridge style forks. They cannot flush them. They literally have to take your front end apart, remove the fork tubes, open them up take them apart, pump the oil out, flush them out, install new seals, and reassemble.

My 15K service was close to 650.00 all in with the fork oil change and motor oil changed.

I am going back to my old school theory on the fork oil. I will change it every 2nd front tire. So something like 36-40K in mileage between changes. Here is photo of my fork oil during service. It was perfectly clean when it came out at 15K.

And here is a link to a similar process on a cartridge style inverted fork.

And from the service manual. The steps to changing your fork oil. It will make more sense why it is 600.00 for that work.

 

[high plains rider]

I'm a flat lander with rolling hills... unless the front end feels extremely heavy I change oil when I see seal starting to leak

 

[Captain steve]

Thanks for all of your responses. Given that having the local guys do the 25K and the forks is going to run nearly $900 OTD I may also adopt the old school thinking. Unless they are leaking or the ride/[performance starts to decline I'll wait until I replace the front tire for the second time... which will be at around 35,000 miles. I have had the local dealer do all of my services for 2+ years but this event has me questioning if I will continue doing so. Hopefully I can find a good Indy who is certified on Indians for future work.

I did extend the warranty out to 5 years {3 additional} a couple of months ago which is something I don't generally do but... there are more than few electronics on the bike that could really take a bite and frankly I had the $1,200 extension cost. Any work done under the warranty {and that will all de done at the dealership} comes with a $50 deductible but that I can live with.

 

[oceanii]

All dealers are into it to make money. We all know to go to a dealer going to be more expensive. As long as they are qualified mechanics at the independent service garage why not.

 

[pablo94]

Thanks for all of your responses. Given that having the local guys do the 25K and the forks is going to run nearly $900 OTD I may also adopt the old school thinking. Unless they are leaking or the ride/[performance starts to decline I'll wait until I replace the front tire for the second time... which will be at around 35,000 miles. I have had the local dealer do all of my services for 2+ years but this event has me questioning if I will continue doing so. Hopefully I can find a good Indy who is certified on Indians for future work.

It makes sense too. As if you are changing your tires then the dealer is pulling your wheel off for the tire change anyway so that knock a bit of cost off the fork service time/cost.

And frankly, I think pulling all the nacelle bolts and taking everything apart every 15K is hard on all those bolt up connections, increases the risk of scratching things, threads being damaged, damaging the fender, damaging the nacelle or fairing, and the list goes on and on...

For example, on m my bike when I got it home after the 15K service I had no fog lights. The Tech simply plugged the aux harness or something into the on/off switch. Not a big deal, but he was not happy when I called him and told him of his mistake.